Wonder if they'll be a party at the Football League

[Ox Fox]

TV deal: Just £4 damages for League
The Football League won its professional negligence claim against its former legal advisers at the High Court - but was awarded just £4 damages instead of the £150 million it was seeking.

It was hailed as one of the largest professional negligence claims ever made against solicitors - the firm of Edge Ellison, which advised the League over the collapsed £140 million television deal with ITV Digital.

Mr Justice Rimer found that there had been two breaches of duty.

But he ruled that neither caused any substantial damages and awarded the League just a nominal £2 for each breach.

The League, which represents teams in the lower three divisions outside the Premiership, sued Hammond Solicitors - who at the time were known as Edge Ellison - over its failure to secure a payment guarantee from ITV Digital's backers, Carlton and Granada.

The pay-TV firm collapsed in early 2002 because it could not afford payments to the Football League.

Several clubs suffered serious financial problems after the television company's collapse. They had invested in players and ground improvements that they could not afford when the television money dried up.

At a hearing in February this year, the League's counsel, Justin Fenwick QC, said his client had suffered a loss of £140 million. The League was seeking this amount in damages plus interest, taking the figure to nearer £150 million.

OnDigital was launched in 2001 to challenge BSkyB's coverage of sport in Britain, particularly soccer, but collapsed after it was rebranded ITV Digital in 2002.

 

[OldGit]

They should have found an excuse to sue in the states:

The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in North America).

That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States. Here are this year's winners:


5th Place (tie):

Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms Robertson's son.


5th Place (tie):

19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbour ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbour's hubcaps.


5th Place (tie):

Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed, to the tune of $500,000.


4th Place:

Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbour's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.


3rd Place:

A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500, after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.


2ndPlace:

Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a nightclub in a neighbouring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.


1st Place:

This year's runaway winner was Mrs Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mrs Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, (from an OU football game), having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go into the back & make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned Mrs Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising her in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded her $1,750,000, plus a new motor home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons around.

 

[The Voice From Above]

Unbelievable OG!!

Worthy winner though....